Where are the Top 10 Workplaces In Singapore?

SINGAPORE – The city-state’s Downtown Core, which also encompasses Singapore’s central business district (CBD), housed the highest number of resident workers, according to the latest data published by the Department of Statistics (SingStat) on Friday (18 June, SGT).

Based on SingStat’s report entitled “Singapore Census of Population 2020, Statistical Release 2: Households, Geographic Distribution, Transport and Difficulty in Basic Activities,” 284,000 people or almost 13 percent of the employed residents here work in the Downtown Core area.

By industry, the financial & insurance services sector was the largest employer in the Downtown Core with 98,065 workers, followed by wholesale & retail trade (31,016 workers) and the information & communications industry (22,986 workers).

Among those working in the Downtown Core in 2020, SingStat noted 86.2 percent had at least post-secondary qualifications. This was the highest across all planning areas. Other planning areas with at least 80 percent of employed residents with post-secondary or higher qualifications were Queenstown, Western Water Catchment, Newton, Seletar, Western Islands, and Museum.

Moreover, the department highlighted that the Downtown Core was the top workplace destination in 2020 for people living across all of Singapore’s 5 planning regions (Central, East, North, North-East, West), accounting for 9.8 percent to 21.3 percent of the resident workforce from each region.

SingStat also pointed out that the number of employed residents commuting to Downtown Core for work was the highest for those staying in the Central region at 91,500, followed by the North-East region at 65,900, the East region at 51,100, the West region at 47,600 and the North region at 27,900.

After the Downtown Core, the 2nd and 3rd top workplaces are the planning areas of Queenstown (131,800 workers) and Geylang (116,500 workers). In Queenstown, the largest employers are wholesale & retail trade (19,924 workers), information & communications (14,859 workers), as well as transportation & storage (10,512 workers). In Geylang, the biggest employers are wholesale & retail trade (28,209 workers), information & communications (8,898 workers), as well as financial & insurance services (7,147 workers).

The 4th top workplace is the planning area of Bukit Merah (103,600 workers), followed by Tampines (84,200 workers). Completing the top 10 are Changi, Kallang, Jurong East, Bedok, and Toa Payoh, where the number of workers range from 53,000 to more than 63,000.

Notably, Singapore’s CBD is part of the larger Downtown Core planning area, which is composed of 8 eight subzones – Cecil, Anson, Phillip, Maxwell, Clifford Pier, Tanjong Pagar, the Marina Centre, and Raffles Place.

The aforementioned staff count also pertains to the usual workplace location and not temporary work arrangements arising from COVID-19 measures. Persons who usually worked from home or were usually with no fixed location for work were excluded in the count.

Meanwhile, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah said SingStat’s geographical data on where people work and live is useful for urban planning.

“[We hope to] have more people be able to work, live, and play near their areas of residence. We’ve also had to think about work from home,” she said in a report by ChannelNewsAsia (CNA) published on Friday.

“This data is helpful to let you know in terms of geographical distribution, helps you to plan for things across the board, for transport, for town planning, master planning,” Rajah added.